The present invention relates generally to automotive vehicles, and particularly to tire state estimators and tire state estimation methods for estimating a state of a tire set of an automotive vehicle.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-8062 (JP2005-8062) discloses a tire grip degree estimator for estimating a degree of grip of a tire set of an automotive vehicle in a lateral direction of the tire set. The estimation is implemented by calculating an estimated tire grip degree on a basis of a ratio of an estimated tire self aligning torque to a modeled tire self aligning torque.
Self aligning torque (SAT) is a torque that is applied from a road surface to a steerable tire about the axis of steering.